She looked across the schoolyard at all the happy little groups. Her eyes settled on the popular girls… dating the popular guys, making the perfect grades-- being best at everything and setting examples for those to come. She sighed, wondering if any of the other people in this world would ever get their chance in the spotlight. She doubted it, in her experience unkind words and prejudices made no difference as long as you were pretty and had lots of pretty friends.
But of course, as life is about as unfair as possible, these girls were winners for life. Doomed to perfection… no bad jobs or lack of families for them. What a horrible thought, she would probably grow up to be a secretary for that blond girl up front. Well, this was an example, of course. It wasn't for sure that it would be that particular girl…
The first bell awoke her from her daydream/nightmare. She decided then and there to avoid the curly-haired blond at all costs to keep such thoughts from entering her head. She had enough to worry about without the pit in her stomach coming back for another visit, as it surely would if she did any more dictation in her head…
"Lacheys, Mona," called out Ms. Pruitt, the tech teacher, searching the room. "Somewhere…" she offered, "here" seeming an inappropriate lie. Ms. Pruitt looked up from her grade book to give Mona the corporate eyebrow. She looked at the serious look on Mona's face and sent a slight grin across the room to her. "Then should I count her absent?" "Only if she deserves a detention."
Precisely an hour later Mona wiped the sweat from her forehead. She loved technical work, but it was hard. She flung herself on the bench, with five minutes until she had to go to her next class. Suddenly the teacher was next to her, with a worried expression on her face. "Mona…" she began, but she was cut off. "Ms. Pruitt, I know, I know. You're worried about my mental heath or something stupid like that. I can take care of myself, so unless I did something wrong and the drama class' production goes horribly wrong, you have nothing to talk about with me, alright?" She didn't even wait for an answer, merely stalked off to the complete other side of the room, black boots squeaking as she walked. Meanwhile, directly behind Ms. Pruitt a girl with tight blond curls watched the whole thing… "Ms. Pruitt?" she asked, "What were you going to talk to her about?" The dumbstruck teacher replied, "I merely wanted her to do the spotlights the night of the play…" "Um, I could like, try to talk to her for you about it, ma'am…" She turned to face her star student. "Why thank you, Jennifer. I think that's the best way to handle this."
When Mona had finally finished sulking, she looked to see how the rest of her class was staying entertained. To her intense surprise she saw a freckly green-eyed face looking back at her, trying to question her. "Why did you treat Ms. Pruitt like that?" the face demanded, "She just wanted you to do the spotlights tomorrow night!" She blinked, realizing she was staring at her apparent future employer. "I--" she tried to begin, a lump forming in her stomach. Her mouth closed. She couldn't explain anything in this state.